Short takes

OHIO'S PUBLIC universities, while improving minds, also could benefit students' lifelong health by heeding last week's call from the Ohio Board of Regents to ban the use of tobacco on campuses.

• OHIO’S PUBLIC universities, while improving minds, also could benefit students’ lifelong health by heeding last week’s call from the Ohio Board of Regents to ban the use of tobacco on campuses.

The recommendation leaves up to each community college and university the decision of whether to go cold turkey. But there’s good reason to do so: College is when tobacco often establishes its grip.

Dr. Toby Cosgrove, president and CEO of the Cleveland Clinic, told regents that 37 percent of college students who smoke begin after they enroll.

A reluctant witness to this fact is Ohio higher-education Chancellor Jim Petro, who is now clear of the laryngeal cancer that might well be linked to a former 40-year smoking habit, started in college.

Students often start smoking to deal with stress and social pressure, or because they think it will help them control their weight.

Health experts are keen to prevent smoking among young adults because doing so could ward off related diseases for an entire generation.

So far, only Miami University bans the sale or use of tobacco everywhere on campus. Following its lead and the regents’ advice would send a strong message and save lives.

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• SINCE 2007 , the Ohio attorney general’s office has asked officials at each of the state’s schools to submit floor plans and safety plans that can be used by emergency responders in the event of a threatening situation at a school.

Most of Ohio’s more than 4,000 schools have recognized the value of this program and have submitted the requested documents. But about 151 schools, including four charter schools in Franklin County, still hadn't submitted plans as of last week, Attorney General Mike DeWine said. Some schools say that they have safety plans, they just haven’t filed them yet. They should do so.

DeWine’s remarks came at the Ohio Safe Schools Summit in Columbus, organized in part as a response to the fatal shooting of three students at Chardon High School earlier this year.

The program calls for schools to review their plans each October, a good way of ensuring that plans don’t become outdated and forgotten. DeWine noted that some floor plans are so rudimentary that they don’t even clearly denote exits. Knowing where the exits are would be vital to emergency responders in the event of a tragedy at a school.